Archives

Meta

Meet Passion Pursuer: Kiran Meghani

One thing that tends to be a common feature among a lot of DPO girls is we have a lot of pharmacists, doctors, optometrists, sisters in med school, sisters studying pre-pharm, pre-med.. I mean, a South Asian Sorority, what do you expect? So most of these girls, or anyone for that matter studying or planning on studying medicine, understands that you wouldn’t ever dare to have a conversation with your parents that started with…”I’ve decided I don’t want to go to med-school”

This sister did EXACTLY that. Introducing, Kiran Meghani (formerly Kiran Lakhani), an Alpha Class Sister from Denton City-Wide Colony. Kiran has been happily married for 2 years and living is in Frisco, Texas with her husband and yellow retriever labrador, Sunny! She graduated in May 2007 and then recently completed her Masters in Education in Teacher Leadership. Crossing in Spring 2003 as Sister Snorts (#2), Kiran says the best thing she ever learnt from DPO was ‘Time management! and using a planner!‘

When I sent an email out to our entire listserv asking for alumnae sister who they thought was ‘worth knowing about…’ I got a lot of emails asking me to interview the ‘DPO CELEBS’ (they will feature, and possibly guest blog here eventually.. but for the mean time, I’m shoving them out of the limelight!). When Kiran’s name was emailed to me, it came along with the words..

” I think she would be a wonderful sister to broadcast.”

And I must say, I most definitely agree! Let me give you a little bit about what I learnt about Kiran! Instead of her initial plans of going to med-school and becoming a doctor, Kiran currently teaches 6th grade science at Blalack Middle School. When asking her what made her become a middle school teacher, Kiran says:

I went all through college as a biology major thinking i was going to do pre-med, until my senior year. I had the opportunity to work for the local school district (Denton ISD) and fell in love with designing curriculum for their after school program. So i decided to build up the courage to tell my parents that their med school-bound daughter decided to go into education. Of course I wasn’t happy about the fact that I’d be making a third of my potential salary but I was going to happy knowing i was doing something I really found a passion for. So I decided to finish school, get alternatively certified for science 4-8 and began teaching middle school right out of college.

One of the things I’ve personally always found fascinating, is how much little kids know and what they teach us. I feel like we learn a lot from children subconsciously.. (What am I saying, I still act like a child most the time..) When asking Kiran what’s the most valuable thing she learnt from a student, she said:

It’s actually a quote I heard that I experienced in my classroom with a student.

” People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”- John Maxwell.

Honestly, it couldn’t be more true. I realized that in my first year of teaching, when I was so determined to make a good impression on my students, I literally lost the engagement of half of them! It was a struggle trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I mean i was saying all the right things, knowing all of my facts, being on top of discipline… Little did I know I was doing everything wrong! I needed to realize that I was doing everything BUT connecting with them. i got so caught up with the technicalities, that unknowingly I ignored that sincere personal connection. They never saw me as someone who really cared and took moments to delve deeper in their lives but simply as a robot who was trying to be the “perfect teacher”. Could you blame me? I was just trying to get through the year and not screw up. I took that first year as a wake up call and really switched my game around. in fact, i find myself switching up my style every year – it’s healthy! I change up certain routines, try new systems and techniques and I learn to take the best and worst from each year and make the next one better. I realized this was working when i saw positive feedback from my students. My reluctant students were more likely to take risks in the class and volunteer, my hesitant students didn’t mind sitting up front, they stayed back and talked to me about their middle -school love lives, laughed and shared their most personal and sometimes heartbreaking issues in the home. I knew then that they were trusting me and that was one of my biggest victories.

Think she’s pretty impressive so far? It doesn’t end here! Kiran is also a Henna Artist in her spare time, which has been a secret passion of hers since she was a child.

I picked up my first cone at the age of 8 and doodled on everyone and everywhere!

It’s always inspiring to see somebody following their passion and doing what they love, however Kiran took this one step further. What was just a bit of a hobby at the age of 8, has now turned into a huge success, as Kiran has taken this passion online and created her own brand!

About a year ago, I took my brand online. KM Henna Artistry got its own website, facebook fanpage, and showed face at the popular bridal shows in Dallas. More and more of my brides wanted to see work online so I jumped on the bandwagon and began marketing…. I am so blessed that I have such amazing clients and what’s better is that I can use my passion as my de-stresser! After a long day of crazy middle schoolers, tests, and grading papers, I never mind coming home to a henna session..It’s therapeutic for me 🙂

I’ve just checked out Kiran’s website myself. And it’s pretty amazing! And she blogs =) I’m pretty excited to follow a new blog. I got a couple of pictures of her work to share with you…

The above one is a Hum Tum design! I’m not really a Bollywood fan but that is one of the few Bollywood movies I absolutely LOVED!